In this blog post, we will consider how to write a social welfare study plan based on community-centered thinking and a spirit of challenge.
Write about your academic experience and what you learned
Focusing my mind by climbing a mountain in the middle of winter
When I finished my first year of high school, I felt like something was blocking me. I was always the type of person who studied alone, making plans and studying on my own to achieve my goals. However, I was too ambitious, so I made too many plans and gave myself too many tasks, which caused me a lot of stress and eventually led to a point where I couldn’t study anymore. I had a lot to do, but I hated studying so much that it gave me headaches, so I ended up giving up everything and started climbing mountains in the middle of winter. Through mountain climbing, I learned the principle of “selection and concentration.” No matter how difficult the climb was, it was important to take the next step, and by walking silently, I was able to reach the summit. During winter break, I thought deeply about selection and concentration through mountain climbing in the middle of winter, and after improving my physical strength, I began to study through “selection and concentration.”
Instead of making sporadic study plans and becoming frustrated when I couldn’t follow through, I started studying the basics. The first subject I focused on was Korean language. I believed that if I was good at Korean, I would be able to understand problems in any subject, and my English would also improve naturally, because I thought that Korean was the foundation of social studies and science. So, I studied Korean grammar and began to improve my contextual comprehension by carefully reading non-literary texts, which I was particularly weak at. I also set a daily study goal that I could achieve and made studying fun by increasing my sense of accomplishment. As I studied in this way, my Korean language scores improved significantly, and my English scores also improved naturally. As my grades improved, I felt a sense of accomplishment, which made studying even more enjoyable. As a result, studying is now a pleasure rather than a chore.
Major school activities and reflections
I never gave up my sports club activities, even when I was busy or tired
When I became a high school student and had to choose a club, I wanted to choose a club related to college entrance exams. However, I wanted to do something that would challenge me, even if it was not related to my studies. I thought that I needed to break out of my routine of only studying by doing something different. So, I joined the only sports club in my school.
Through the sports club, I realized the difficulties and joys of group life. Our club meets once a day at the school grounds to do basic physical training to improve our physical fitness. At first, it was difficult to eat lunch quickly during lunch break and then gather at the school grounds to exercise on an empty stomach. It was so physically demanding that I wanted to quit. However, because it was a group activity, I thought that if I quit, the balance of the group would be disrupted and my friends would lose motivation, so I persevered. As I persevered and continued, I gained physical strength and energy from being with my friends. We encouraged each other as we exercised together, which helped us build deep friendships, and we were able to exercise while energizing each other. The deep friendships I formed with my friends were a great blessing. We were all studying, but we took time out of our schedules to do something that would not help us get into college, and the friendships we formed while encouraging each other through the difficult training were deeper and more special than most people’s. The honest conversations we had while training helped us build strong friendships and supported each other.
Finally, I was able to develop a spirit of challenge. In my first year, through my main activity of mountain climbing, I gained the courage to climb any mountain and the determination to take on challenges. In my second year, I became a leader of the club, challenging myself to new sports and leading others. The activity that made us the most nervous was skin diving. This was because the membership fees were quite high and it was an activity that took place in the water. However, when we encouraged each other and finally succeeded, the feeling I had was an experience that fueled my spirit of challenge. Through this club activity, I was able to overcome my desire to study more and develop a strong mind. I also met good friends who were always there for me, and I was able to develop a spirit of challenge by trying new sports.
Examples of consideration, sharing, and cooperation, and what I learned
A spirit of giving way creates beauty
Since it was a school with mostly boys, I sometimes neglected my classes and studies because I was so focused on practicing for the sports festival. In particular, when I was in my second year of high school, all of my classmates had performed well in the previous year’s competition, so even students from other classes predicted that our class would win. As a result, my classmates became overly focused on preparing for the sports day. We went so far that our teachers ended up reprimanding us, and our homeroom teacher and head teacher took extraordinary measures. They banned us from practicing for the sports day. While other students were practicing, our class had to stay behind and do our homework and attend night study sessions every day. Everyone felt frustrated, and that frustration spread to resentment toward the teachers, to the point where it caused friction with our homeroom teacher. At first, I was upset that the teachers didn’t seem to understand how we felt. However, as the vice-class president, I knew how much the teachers cared about us, so I started to calm the children down. I told them, “We are still students, and it’s true that we practiced too much, so we should understand. If we behave well for just one week, they will understand us.” Then I started to reestablish the class rules. Our class was often late for class because of sports, and the teachers pointed that out a lot, so I compiled the information and made a chart to check the attendance every morning so that my friends would not be late anymore. I also contacted the students who didn’t do their homework and helped them so that all 35 students in the class could show good class attitude. As a result, the attitude of our class improved noticeably, and the teachers were so impressed by our attitude that they lifted the practice ban after a week, and our class became a class that not only excels in sports but also excels in academics.
Efforts and preparations related to motivation and career plans
I want to live a community-oriented life
Until junior high school, I grew up in a relatively small community with close-knit neighbors. Then I decided that I wanted to attend a liberal arts high school, so I naturally transferred to a high school in Seoul, which was the beginning of a difficult journey and the start of my dream. High school in Seoul was different from where I used to live. Individualism, which I had seen in newspapers and on the news, was rampant, and the students were clearly wary of their classmates, even those in the same class, for fear of hindering each other’s studies. On top of that, shortly after school started, I was shocked to see an advertisement on my way home that said, “Let’s play tomorrow, I have to study today.” At that moment, I decided that I couldn’t let my high school years slip away like this.
I believed that studying was important, but that people were more important, and that is what I learned. Therefore, although I am following the same path as others, I wanted to make slightly different choices. So, I joined a sports club and read newspapers, focusing on social and educational issues. Then, I naturally chose to major in social welfare. By learning theories and fundamentals about society in general and studying numerous cases, I want to resolve my questions about how our society should develop. I want to study with the dream of becoming a person who can contribute to society. Today’s society can be described as one that values academic background and is highly competitive, but I believe that this will change. I want to be at the forefront of that change.
